How Responsible are You?

Well, I hate to be a pain in the butt, but let's be completely honest with ourselves:

We are the only ones completely responsible for our relationship with God.

I know there are a ton of reasons why you don't go to church or why you don't pray or why it is intimidating for you to really worship or why you don't understand the Bible or why you can't make time for God every day. I know that the guilt of not having a fulfilling relationship with God is bugging you and making you feel bad.

Here is a suggestion as to how to stop feeling bad.

Start pursuing a relationship with God.

But you don't get it! There are a bunch of things that are beyond my control that contribute to...

Stop.

Right now.

You are responsible for your life. You are responsible for your family. You are responsible for your parish.

The best part about this whole "owning your relationship with God" type of thing is that in the end, you are the one that has to make the decision. It is the brutal honesty that we are so afraid of today that is going to allow you to stand up and stand out. There are so many people that are unwilling to take a personal accounting for their own faith walk. They are so anxious to blame it on this priest, that teacher, this parent, that minister...

The responsible person looks at all of it and says, "You know what? I know the Body of Christ is broken. I know the Body of Christ has people in it who are less than civil, you know what... that has NOTHING to do with my relationship to Christ because it is just that: MY relationship to Christ and I am going to stop making excuses for not engaging in it."

You see, when this happens, we start to take responsibility for our own sin and start to change the way we behave. When this happens we start to take responsibility for our own prayer lives and start to change the way we pray. When this happens we start to take responsibility for our own relationships and how we live our own lives.

If you are stuck in a rut. If you have a real problem getting going on your prayer life, you know what can start a change? You know what can get you going? You know which word keeps repeating itself over and over?

You.

Be responsible for you.

Make the change.